[2024]
boy with dragon fish holding lotus stems
Oil, acrylic and gesso on primed canvas. Ceramic and paracord. Dimensions Variable.
‘Boy with Dragon Fish Holding Lotus Stems’, explores zhuizi (Chinese belt toggles) as objects of queer Chinese diasporic imagining and world-building. Translating to ‘counterbalance’, the toggle attached to one’s belongings using cord and then slipped over the belt. Zhuizi were both a symbolic and self-cultivating practice - they signified the wearers’ desires, hopes and sense of interconnectedness.
Responding to archived objects, I understand painting as a way to give space to the personal and intimate resonances evoked by such objects. What roadmaps do these lineages offer in their quiet, tender, playful and boisterous ways? How can we envision and attend to these queer practices of healing and being in relation?
Image Courtesy – Anna Kučera (installation shot from The 2024 Jenny Birt Award)
Image Courtesy - Mei Lin Meyers